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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818129">Walls Cave In</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shining_star_rae/pseuds/Shining_star_rae'>Shining_star_rae</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>eldritch October [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ancient Sith causing problems for everyone despite being long dead, Brief Mention of Suicide, Eldritch being good at waiting, Gen, Jedi Temples are sentient, Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger make a very small appearance, Lothal Temple is a prision, World Between Worlds, brief mention of self harm, not from any of the characters from the show though</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:49:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,518</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26818129</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shining_star_rae/pseuds/Shining_star_rae</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Many Jedi temples in the outer rim were forgotten.<br/>Desolate.<br/>Dead.<br/>But the thing-the ancient Being the Sith had once summoned through gateways upon gateways to wreak havoc amongst the Jedi still existed. It had been imprisoned before it could cause any more damage. Before it could traverse to another temple and eat away at the soul of it. But it was patient in its stone prison. It had eaten its fill of life for many centuries to come. It would allow itself to rest until woken.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>eldritch October [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956007</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Walls Cave In</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Many Jedi temples in the outer rim were forgotten.</p>
<p>Desolate.</p>
<p>Dead.</p>
<p>Some were no more than crumbling ruins. Sand, dirt, water or wind had eroded the walls, cracked the statues, rendered books unreadable. The elements had made their home inside. They did not look to leave. Despite this, wildlife came nowhere near the ancient temples of learning or forging or research or growing or creating. Prey shivered and skittered for cover if they came too close. Predators had begun using this to their advantage; chasing their prey to the temple boarders and sinking their teeth into the necks of their victims when they refused to go further. They themselves wouldn’t enter either though. A predator could always tell when something bigger and far more dangerous was lurking in the shadows.  </p>
<p>Plants never grew in these places either. Unless, of course, the plants already resided within. From a time when they were groomed and tenderly loved. They had spread their vines and flowers when possible, creating mazes and dangerous masterpieces. Tree roots connected with other roots to send tiny electric pulses. Communicating. Growing. Learning. Keeping intruders out. Keeping something else in. But the native plants from the planet of the temple never found their way inside. Often the case was that there’d be a ring of dead flora just brushing against the hidden, crumbling walls. Never decaying, never coming back to life.  </p>
<p>It was likely that if anyone ever stumbled across the ruins, they’d have no idea what they’d found. Unless they encountered the corpses in the middle of the temple. A traveler would have suddenly known what kind of community and life had once existed here and would have shed tears of wonder and deep, unabating sadness. They would leave and remember nothing. This was, of course, assuming they found the corpses.</p>
<p>Assuming they did not have the urge to lie down and join them.</p>
<p>But these were only the temples in complete ruin. The ones that craved life so much, desired to once more feel <em>alive</em> they tried to take and take and take the breath, the spirit of anything that came within their walls. The plants that were once groomed and loved ever so tenderly are the only things trying to keep living beings out. They were the only ones who could.</p>
<p>The other forgotten temples still stood proud. Unyielding. Fighting. Perhaps the earth had long covered the tops of the temples, plunging them into darkness. Perhaps the only thing that could be heard were streams that had once been built to weave their way through the great building for a multitude of reasons. People had once washed their clothes here. Or bathed. Or fetched their water. Some of them maybe even preferred to live within the water than on land.</p>
<p>Now the water only created echoes. They bounced around in the darkness. Dancing off walls, floors, ceilings, things shuffling along in the hallways. Going higher, higher, higher.  It was music to the temples. Soothing at times. Pointing out dangers at others.</p>
<p>For the temples that had no streams within or around them, they stood silently. Trapped in memories of the past. Replaying laughter and tears and gasps of delight over and over so they might remain firm in their duty. They did not crumble because they did not hunger the way others did. They did not know what hunger was. Whatever had made the Jedi abandon – flee – those other twisted walls had not damaged these ones nearly as much. They remembered what it was to be <em>light.</em></p>
<p>The Being (if it could be called as such) the being that took and scared and caused darkness had been called away elsewhere in hopes it would no longer infect the minds of the Jedi. It had been trapped somewhere else in the hopes it would no longer infect the temples by seeping parts of itself into the very walls. It was too late for the hundreds of temples destroyed though. Too late for the hundreds of Jedi and force-sensitives who had fallen prey to the being. In death or darkness. Ripping out hair, scratching at eyes, killing family when they looked a touch too <em>other</em> to really be them. (Of course, it had been their family, of course it had been. So they would then take their blades to themselves).</p>
<p>Some of the animals within the temple had fallen prey to the ageless one. They grew bigger, meaner. They didn’t look quite like they used to. Some grew an extra set of limbs, maybe some eyes, or even wings. Some became blind or could walk upright. It was slower than walking on all appendages, but it got the job done. The plants who had once been groomed and loved tenderly for whatever reason did not descend into fouler versions of themselves. Instead they grew smarter. Protective. They tried to kill the new seemingly deathless creatures. Many times, they succeeded. The creatures were not motivated to leave the temples. It gave the plants time to grow and grow, vining across the floor, the walls, the ceiling weaving an intricate net until the creature had no where else to go and the plant could wrap itself around its neck.</p>
<p>This all occurred a very long time ago, however. A few Jedi had already been losing their inner light of righteous anger and purity, falling prey to seductive words of senators seeking a better way of intergalactic interaction. They had already been migrating inward. Closer to the center of the galaxy. They were forgetting that they were warriors. Soon, they forgot about the temples they had fled, erasing the memory of the locations, and forgot what it was they were fleeing from.</p>
<p>But the thing-the ancient Being the Sith had once summoned through gateways upon gateways to wreak havoc amongst the Jedi still existed. It had been imprisoned before it could cause any more damage. Before it could traverse to another temple and eat away at the soul of it. But it was patient in its stone prison. It had eaten its fill of life for many centuries to come. It would allow itself to rest until woken.</p>
<p>The temple it was trapped within was forgotten like all the others in memory, but it had not been erased off the maps. That would have been a very foolish thing to do. Prisons for ageless Beings must have keys so that one day something can come in and kill it. It was just how things were done.</p>
<p>No one remembered how to kill a deathless being.</p>
<p>A millennia passed. The being waited.</p>
<p>It was not surprised when two rather small lights moved its prison above ground and entered. It still could not escape however. Not yet. Not all of it at once. So it casted shadows down on them instead, scrapped something that could have been a claw against the ground to create echoes. It wanted to inflict pain and fear. But if the being had had a head like the tookas it could now sense around the temple, it would have tilted it to show confusion. Even the two former Jedi master skeletons did not seem to phase them as it should. But then they separated and the smaller of the two lights was walking right into their heart.</p>
<p>The pesky will-o’-the-wisps gathered around the larger light, invisible. The being scooched away. Ah, so this was why they could not sense it. The wisps were even older than it.</p>
<p>Creating nightmares for the young one for days to come was relishing. The temple was testing the youngling, but its distraction let him sink into the visions. Allowing the little light to watch its family die. The fear was tantalizing and the being wished that the little lights were aware of just how much chaos it was going to spread. How much chaos it would inflict on those they loved outside of visions. The littlest one escaped into the room of gateways before the Being could have more fun. The gateway room was the one place it did not long to enter. The littlest light came back with a crystal and a brighter glow. But the being could sense the unease laying in their heart.</p>
<p>It let them leave. They would be back sooner or later. And it was content to wait as it let a little part of itself, just enough for the temple to not notice at first, leave with the smaller light. It would fill itself up once more.</p>
<p>The temple sunk back into the ground. The Being expanded its size before collapsing in on itself. The scent of grass teased it. The temple slammed its rooms shut, closing all doorways. It had noticed its clever trick too late. The smell of grass disappeared. But it was a start. It was a start.</p>
<p>Outside the temple something small and unnoticeable opened its many eyes as it rested on a shoulder of a human. It wriggled its way closer to an ear and began its work.</p>
<p>Wolves watched from a distance.</p>
<p>The temple shuddered at tried to remember laughter.</p>
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